Dräger Award for Intensive Care Medicine bestowed

The award went to the working group studying “Antithrombin III in critically ill patients: systematic review with meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis” in the Department of Anesthesiology, Rigshospitalet, at the Juliane Marie Centre and Copenhagen Trial Unit, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

During the opening ceremony, Professor Jennifer M Hunter, Chairperson of the ESA Scientific Programme Committee, together with Dr Markus Keussen, Head of Dräger Strategic Business Field Anesthesiology, presented the award to Dr Arash Afshari, representing this working group.

The prize
This annual prize honors significant European research in the field of intensive care medicine published in peer-reviewed intensive care or anesthesiology journals in the preceding year. The prize is given to the anesthetic or intensive care department that produces the article rather than any one research worker.

This year, the Dräger Prize subcommittee of the ESA who judged the prize recognized this working group for their systematic, detailed and methodical approach in a large meta-analysis of the effects of anti-thrombin III in critically ill patients.

With this prize, Dräger wishes to honor scientific endeavors and support advances in the field of critical care medicine.

The award recipients
Dr Afshari’s working group has brought together all the published papers on the role of one of the body’s anti-clotting proteins (which also has anti-inflammatory properties), anti-thrombin III, to study its benefits or harm when it is given to critically ill patients. Data from 3458 patients was available suggesting that this clotting product was not suitable to give to intensive care patients despite its anti-inflammatory effects: the risk of excessive bleeding was too great.

As Chairman of the Dräger Prize Subcommittee, Prof Jennifer M. Hunter MB ChB PhD FRCA, School of Clinical Science (Anaesthesia), University of Liverpool, UK, stated that this paper was selected as it showed the highest standard of scientific study of all the submissions, with results that were most likely to affect future clinical practice.

About Dräger
Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA is an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology: Dräger products protect, support and save human life. Founded in 1889, in 2007 the Group achieved sales of 1,819.5 million Euro worldwide and an EBIT of 151.9 million Euro. Today, Dräger employs around 10,000 people in more than 70 subsidiaries worldwide and has representation in around 190 countries. The Dräger Medical subsidiary offers products, services and integrated system solutions which accompany the patient throughout the care process – Emergency Care, Perioperative Care, Critical Care, Perinatal Care and Home Mechanical Ventilation.
1) Head of the working group: Dr Arash Afshari; members: Dr Jorn Wetterslev,
Dr Jesper Brok, Dr Ann Moller, all of the Rigshospitalet, at the Juliane Marie Centre the Copenhagen Trial Unit and the Cochrane Anaesthesia Review Group, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

2) BMJ 2007; 335: 1248-51
Contact for Trade Press:
Birgit Diekmann
Tel.: +49 451 882 1215
E-mail: birgit.diekmann@draeger.com